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The Faithfulness Of God For Unfaithful People (Lessons From A Prophet And A Prostitute)

Have you ever wanted to be a Isaiah like the ones you read about in the Bible? If so, are you out of your mind?

As you read the Scriptures, over and over you find God telling his prophets to do some very strange and uncomfortable things. For instance, He had one cook his food burning dung for an extended period regarding time. Another was only allowed to sleep on uno side of his body. Along another was cold to travel around preaching in the nude!

Needless to say, being a seer was not the most comfortable of jobs as God would often allow them live out illustrations to make a point.

In my opinion, one about the most awesome prophets was a man named Hosea. God gave him a task that would provide one of the most amazing illustrations of love und so weiter grace in the entire Bible. In the thoroughly curtailed and frequently ignored book about Hosea we find a story that reveals the heart of God in a way that nothing else does.

God called Hosea during a time when Israel had by and large turned their backs on him to go after and worship false gods. As a way of demonstrating God’s heart toward these unfaithful people, the LORD called Hosea to do something startling.

Here’s the story of the prophet and the harlot in a nutshell.

Hosea was told to find a sweetheart named Gomer, marry her, and have children. No important deal right? Wrong.

The catch was this. There would come a time where for no apparent reason, Gomer would absolutely take off, leaving her family behind to return to a life of prostitution.

Along with what most people associate with a biological of prostitution, throughout the days concerning Hosea, many harlots were actually employed in agnostic temples. In other words, they lived their lives devoting their bodies to the worship of false gods. People would pay money to have sex with them as a form of worship.

If that happened to be the case for Gomer, along upon abandoning her store and family, she would have been living out a life that displayed a total rejection of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In other words, it’s something that goes at least as far if not away hereafter what we see in the story about the Prodigal Son.

Due to her life choices, poor Gomer would begin to vicissitudes some very difficult times. In fact, there would come a time where she didn’t obtain enough food to survive.

Without her realizing it, Hosea was keeping track of her and he knew about her need. Ergo he began to send food to her anonymously. Care packages would arrive at her door with no return address, there was no way for her to know who was meeting her needs and keeping her alive.

It could be that she flatten gave credit to one of her clients instead even to a false god. We don’t know.

Regardless, let this case sink in. Think astir it.

Here’s Hosea, living as if she has no husband, no family, they are missing out on her presence. She has turned her back on them to live as if they didn’t exist and has given herself over to others. Yet, her husband continued to provide for her and she had no clue. She gave him no credit. Yet he continued to prepare enough to keep her alive.

Eventually, as time past, Gomer really bottomed out. As the affects of age caught up with her and hier looks began to fade, she would be of no use on a street corner or even in a pagan temple. Debts began to wool up and she had denial resources with which to pay them. As was common in that day, her debt ended up causing her to be placed on the auction block where she would be sold to whoever would be willing to pay hier debt.

Hosea came to the slave mart and purchased her back. He redeemed her. He anted the debt that she owed and brought her home as his bride!

Regardless of the fact that she had been absolutely unfaithful in every possible way, Hosea would be more than faithful in every imaginable way.

What do you think God was showing Israel through this?

Through the lives concerning the prophet and the Harlot God was painting a vivid picture of his smitten for Israel regardless regarding their lack of love and their tremendous perfidy toward him. What a picture of grace!

With that in mind, think about the cross and the message Father was sending us through His Only Begotten Son.

Jesus received the absolute bad from humanity. Lies, betrayal, beatings, spit, and nails were what He was given in response to doing nothing but good for people. Yet on the cross his prayer for his accusers, those who had lied about him, those who had beaten Him also spit atop Him, and even those who had driven the nails into his body was a prayer like forgiveness.

Jesus wasn’t praying for commodity people or humanity who had it exclusively together. This was not a prayer for faithful people. In fact, many in the crowd were misguided religious leaders who were filled with egotism and envy who would stop at nothing to rise relinquish of Jesus.

As humanity hit Christ with the very worst it could muster up what did the Son of God give back? Love and forgiveness. We gave Him our worst. He cries out that we would sentience God’s best!

As we look at Hosea and Gomer along with Christ and His cross, we see what grace looks like.

If we see limber as anything less than what is demonstrated to us in Scripture, do we know anything of grace at all? If we believe that love, mercy, forgiveness, justification, and rapprochement with God is based upon our personal performance are we omitted the point completely?